High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis for flavonoids profiling of Napier grass herbal tea

Natural plant products are becoming more and more essential in helping to promote safe well-being worldwide. This leads to a substantial rise in the consumption of various herbal teas. The presence of beneficial bioactive ingredients such as flavonoids may be correlated with Napier grass herbal tea having health benefits associated with their intake. Studies have shown that herbal teas have preferentially high antioxidant activity due to the presence of flavonoids in them. The purpose of this study was to identify the Napier grass herbal teas flavonoids prepared under different conditions. Napier grass herbal teas have been formulated using green tea and black tea processes, respectively. The tea samples were extracted in water (95°C, 30 mins) and 60% (v/v) aqueous methanol (30 mins), respectively. Approximately, 1% (v/v) aqueous acetic acid solution (solvent A) and acetonitrile (solvent B) were used as the mobile phase. The flow rate was adjusted to 0.7 mL/min, the column was thermostatically controlled at 28°C, and the injection column was kept at 20 μL. HPLC chromatograms were detected using a photodiode array UV detector at 272 nm. Gallic acid, P-coumaric acid, catechin, epigallocatechin gallate, quercetin, rutin, myricetin and kaempferol were found in both Napier grass water and methanolic extracts, respectively. The findings suggested that the HPLC techniques are ideal for the detection and identification of flavonoids in Napier grass teas

Antioxidant’s properties of Murraya koenigii: a comparative study of three different extraction methods

Nutraceutical and pharmaceutical industries have been increasingly engaged in finding natural alternatives compounds as potential antioxidants. The use of phytochemicals is introduced as a good source of natural antioxidants. Murayya koenigii leaves, commonly used in cooking and traditional medicines have been examined for their remarkable antioxidant potential, yet still, it remains an understudied herb. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the antioxidant properties and flavonoids profile in M. koenigii leaves extracted using; solvent assisted extraction (SAE), microwave assisted extraction (MAE) and ultrasonic assisted extraction (UAE). The antioxidant properties of M. koenigii were analysed qualitatively and quantitatively using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). M. koenigii leaves extracted using the UAE method have responded strongly towards a 2, 2-diphenyl -2-picryl-hydrazyl DPPH assay with the highest inhibition (%) of 78.00±1.00. Using the ferric thiocyanate (FTC) and thiobarbituric acid (TBA) method assays, the M. koenigii leaves with the lowest absorbance were assigned as a sample with the highest antioxidant activity. The M. koenigii leaves extracted using UAE had the lowest absorbance with 0.01±0.00. In the TPC assay, the MAE method showed the highest total phenolic content (120.60±14.81 mg GAE/g sample). The TFC assay demonstrated that MAE methods have the highest total phenolic content (93.38±4.33 mg QE/g sample. The M. koenigii leaves extracted by MAE showed the highest gallic acid, catechin, epigallocatechin gallate, rutin and kaempferol concentration (mg/L). M. koenigii leaves subjected to SAE extraction has the highest concentration of p-coumaric acid, myricetin and quercetin (mg/L). This study found that M. koenigii leaves extracted using UAE exhibited better antioxidant activities than that of MAE and SAE. These useful findings have managed to narrow the knowledge gap regarding the effects of different extraction methods on the antioxidant property of M. koenigii

Influence of pectinase–assisted extraction time on the antioxidant capacity of Spent Coffee Ground (SCG)

Spent Coffee Ground (SCG) comprises a range of functional components with high antioxidant potential and health benefits. Although SCG has many advantages, antioxidant values obtained using enzymes is still scarce. Several studies reported that the use of enzyme-assisted extraction techniques could improve the detection of antioxidant compounds in samples of by-products. In this study, SCG was extracted using enzymeassisted techniques for different periods (0, 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 mins). The total antioxidant capacity was measured using Peroxidase, Catalase, Ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), Superoxide radical scavenging assay (SRSA) and 2,2-diphenyl-2- picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) analysis. 60 mins extraction was found to exhibit antioxidant activity in DPPH, SRSA, Catalase and Peroxidase of 84.18±7.01%, 32.83±6.75%, 76.65±5.52% and 75.01±7.67%, respectively. Besides that, the extraction also gave a high amount of content with 267.17±26.69 mg TAE/mL and 58.30±2.36 mg QE/g in total phenolic content and total flavonoid content respectively. Flavonoids such as quercetin, kaempferol, rutin, gallic acid, catechin, epigallocatechin, p-Coumaric acid and myricetin were found to be present in SCG extract. A high amount of catechin was found in all periods of extraction, whereby 60 mins had the highest concentration of 1741.65 mg/L, while 40 mins had the lowest concentration which was 389.85 mg/L. In conclusion, 60 mins extraction using a pectinase-assisted method was the best extraction period. Additionally, the individual flavonoid catechin in SCG showed that it has potential as an antioxidant. Finally, there is a strong correlation between antioxidative activity and both phenolic and flavonoid content

Integral application of electrical resistivity tomography, geochemistry and borehole data in groundwater seepage assessment

Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) has increasingly adopted as an alternative approach in engineering, environmental and archeological studies. In the past, several limitation of conventional method in groundwater mapping was always relative to the high cost, time consuming and limited data coverage. Hence, this study adopted an ERT in order to identify the unknown problematic zone due to the excessive groundwater seepage occurrences. During data acquisition, five (five) ERT spread lines was conducted using ABEM SAS4000 equipment set. Then, field raw data was processed using RES2DINV and ROCKWORKS software to generate 2-D and 3- D of the inverse model resistivity section respectively. Engineering properties and information related to the borehole and geochemistry results was also used for interpretation and verification purposes. Geochemistry test was performed to identify groundwater sources using Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS) and Ion Chromatography (IC) in order to determine the elements of cation (sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium) and anions (chloride, bicarbonate, nitrate and sulfate) respectively. Based on ERT results, it was found that low electrical resistivity value (10 ~ 100 Ωm) which commonly associated to groundwater was detected at ground surface (0 m) until greater depth (> 10 m). Furthermore, it was found that the groundwater was classified as Ca-HCO that indicates the water was originally come from a typical shallow of the fresh groundwater. Finally, this study has successfully demonstrate that the integral application of ERT, geochemistry and borehole data was applicable to produced comprehensive outcome with particular reference to the problematic groundwater seepage assessment

The molecular phylogenetic signature of Bali cattle revealed by maternal and paternal markers

Bali cattle is a domestic cattle breed that can be found in Malaysia. It is a domestic cattle that was purely derived from a domestication event in Banteng (Bos javanicus) around 3,500 BC in Indonesia. This research was conducted to portray the phylogenetic relationships of the Bali cattle with other cattle species in Malaysia based on maternal and paternal lineage. We analyzed the cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) mitochondrial gene and SRY of Y chromosome obtained from five species of the Bos genus (B. javanicus, Bos gaurus, Bos indicus, Bos taurus, and Bos grunniens). The water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) was used as an outgroup. The phylogenetic relationships were observed by employing several algorithms: Neighbor-Joining (PAUP version 4.0), Maximum parsimony (PAUP version 4.0) and Bayesian inference (MrBayes 3.1). Results from the maternal data showed that the Bali cattle formed a monophyletic clade, and together with the B. gaurus clade formed a wild cattle clade. Results were supported by high bootstrap and posterior probability values together with genetic distance data. For the paternal lineage, the sequence variation is low (with parsimony informative characters: 2/660) resulting an unresolved Neighbor-Joining tree. However, Bali cattle and other domestic cattle appear in two monophyletic clades distinct from yak, gaur and selembu. This study expresses the potential of the COI gene in portraying the phylogenetic relationships between several Bos species which is important for conservation efforts especially in decision making since cattle is highly bred and hybrid breeds are often formed. Genetic conservation for this high quality beef cattle breed is important by maintaining its genetic characters to prevent extinction or even decreased the genetic quality

Subchronic toxicity, immunoregulation and anti-breast tumor effect of Nordamnacantal, an anthraquinone extracted from the stems of Morinda citrifolia L.

Background: Morinda citrifolia L. that was reported with immunomodulating and cytotoxic effects has been traditionally used to treat multiple illnesses including cancer. An anthraquinone derived from fruits of Morinda citrifolia L., nordamnacanthal, is a promising agent possessing several in vitro biological activities. However, the in vivo anti-tumor effects and the safety profile of nordamnacanthal are yet to be evaluated. Methods: In vitro cytotoxicity of nordamnacanthal was tested using MTT, cell cycle and Annexin V/PI assays on human MCF-7 and MDA-MB231 breast cancer cells. Mice were orally fed with nordamnacanthal daily for 28 days for oral subchronic toxicity study. Then, the in vivo anti-tumor effect was evaluated on 4T1 murine cancer cells-challenged mice. Changes of tumor size and immune parameters were evaluated on the untreated and nordamnacanthal treated mice. Results: Nordamnacanthal was found to possess cytotoxic effects on MDA-MB231, MCF-7 and 4T1 cells in vitro. Moreover, based on the cell cycle and Annexin V results, nordamnacanthal managed to induce cell death in both MDA-MB231 and MCF-7 cells. Additionally, no mortality, signs of toxicity and changes of serum liver profile were observed in nordamnacanthal treated mice in the subchronic toxicity study. Furthermore, 50 mg/kg body weight of nordamncanthal successfully delayed the progression of 4T1 tumors in Balb/C mice after 28 days of treatment. Treatment with nordamnacanthal was also able to increase tumor immunity as evidenced by the immunophenotyping of the spleen and YAC-1 cytotoxicity assays. Conclusion: Nordamnacanthal managed to inhibit the growth and induce cell death in MDA-MB231 and MCF-7 cell lines in vitro and cease the tumor progression of 4T1 cells in vivo. Overall, nordamnacanthal holds interesting anti-cancer properties that can be further explored

Trends in Peninsular Malaysia rainfall data during the Southwest monsoon and Northeast monsoon seasons: 1975-2004

This study investigated the spatial pattern and trends of the daily rainfall data in Peninsular Malaysia based on seasonal rainfall indices. Five rainfall indices which describe the main characteristics of rainfall, the total amount of rainfall, frequency of wet days, rainfall intensity, extreme frequency, and extreme intensity, were employed in this study. The statistics of rainfall indices were calculated in terms of their means for four regions in Peninsular Malaysia for the period 1975 to 2004. The findings indicate that the southwest monsoon had the greatest impact on the western part of the Peninsula, particularly in characterizing the rainfall pattern of the northwest region. During this season, the northwest region could be considered as the wettest region since all rainfall indices tested are higher than in other regions of the Peninsula. Otherwise, the northwest region is denoted as the driest part of the Peninsula during the northeast monsoon period. The northwest region is less influenced by the northeast monsoon because of the existence of the Titiwangsa Range, which blocks the region from receiving heavy rainfall. On the other hand, it is found that the lowlands areas such as the eastern part of the Peninsula are strongly characterized by the northeast monsoonal flow. Based on the results of the Mann-Kendall test, as the trend of the total amount of rainfall and the frequency of wet days during the southwest monsoon decrease at most of the stations, the rainfall intensity increases. In contrast, increasing trends in both the total amount of rainfall and the frequency of wet days were observed at several stations during the northeast monsoon, which give rise to the increasing trend of rainfall intensity. The results for both seasons indicate that there are significantly decreasing trends in the frequency of wet days during the extreme events for most of the stations on the peninsula. However, a smaller number of significant trends was found for extreme intensity